John the Faster

John The Faster (JOHANNES JEJUNATOR Or NESTEUTES), of humble extraction, became patriarch of Constantinople in 582. The was distinguished for his piety, benevolence, strong asceticism, and fasting. He was the first who assumed the title of "ecumenical patriarch," and thereby involved himself in difficulties with the bishops of Rome, Pelagius II and, Gregory I, the opening of a struggle which resulted finally, in the 11th century (1054), in a complete rupture of the churches of Rome and Constantinople. (See the article GREGORY I, and Ffoulkes, Christendoms's Divisions, vol. 1, § 17.) John died Sept. 2, 595. The Greek Church counts him among its saints. He is reputed the author of Α᾿κολουθία καὶ τάξις τῶν ἐξομολογουμένων; Λόγοςπρὸς τον μέλλοντα ἐξαγορεῦσαι τὸν αὑτοῦ πνευματικὸν υἱόν, which belongs to the earliest penitential works of the Greek Church (pub. by Morinus, Comm. hist. de administratione sacramenti poenitentice, Paris, 1651, Ven. 1792, etc.). See Oudin, De Scr. Eccles. 1, 1473 sq.; Fabricius, Bibl. Grceca, 10, 164 sq.; Le Quien, Oriens Christian.